When people think about pursuing something, they usually first take a look at their resources to determine whether or not they can do it. That is a wise thing to do.

But where most people fail in this process is when they look at their resources to determine whether or not they can do it, they are usually taking stock of the wrong resources.

Most people immediately look at money. “How much money do I have?” they ask. Sure, we need to know how much money we have, but money is not the greatest resource. In fact, there are a few other resources that are all more important, and certainly more impacting, than money.

Take a look through the following and see how you do. If you have money, but don’t have these, you will not go far. If you have these but lack in the money department, you can still pursue and achieve your dreams.

1. Desire. Everything that comes from life comes from wanting it. Really wanting it. Do you have desire in you for something? A fire in the belly that cannot be put out no matter what? This is what you must have. True burning desire for what you want. This is not a wish or something you would take if it came along. This is something deep in your heart. Something you long for, something you have always longed for, and something you will continue to long for. In many ways it is what you feel you were created for. Your destiny. And it is buried within you and cannot be taken away. Do you have this kind of desire for what you seek? Then you will accomplish it.

   Very few persons, comparatively, know how to Desire with sufficient intensity. They do not know what it is to feel and manifest that intense, eager, longing, craving, insistent, demanding, ravenous Desire which is akin to the persistent, insistent, ardent, overwhelming desire of the drowning man for a breath of air; of the shipwrecked or desert-lost man for a drink of water; of the famished man for bread and meat."
   Robert Collier

   
   
2. Vision. Robert Schuller once said, “You never have a money problem, only a vision problem.” Well said. If you have vision for something, you will attract the money needed. Vision is that grand spectacular plan that sees the big picture, paints it for others, and draws them along.

   Do you have a vision for what it is you want to accomplish? Can you see it even if it isn’t here yet? Can you hear it? Smell it?

   How big is your vision? Is it a tiny little thing that lacks a compelling nature? Or is it something so big that it acts like a giant magnet to everything around it? If you have an enormous vision to see your plan come to fruition, it will, no matter how much money you may or may not have.

   
   
3. Persistence.

   “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
   Calvin Coolidge

   It is true that most people who achieve something that others don’t do so simply because they tried longer. Not necessarily harder, just longer. So often the prize is lost because we do not persevere. Wealth, talent, genius, and education are good, but cannot and will not take the place of the one who is tenaciously persistent.

   Do you persist when the going gets tough? When it looks like the goal will be a little further off and a little longer in arriving do you quit and go elsewhere or do you buckle down and attack with even more diligence? If you will persist, you will achieve your dream, whether you have money or not.

   
   
4. Guts. Courage. Bravery. Nerve, Valor. Do you have them? Can you look risk in the eye and not blink? The men and women of this world who have accomplish tremendous things were not handed those things. I have found that every single one of them had moments of pure unadulterated fear. Fear of loss. Fear of humiliation. Fear of failure. But what separated them from the rest is that they had the guts to go forward anyway. When others slunk off into the distance, they forged ahead. It didn’t matter how much money they had. They had a dream - a big dream - and the courage to go for it, no matter what the cost.

   "Courage is getting away from death by continually coming within an inch of it."
   G. K. Chesterton

Desire
Vision
Persistence
Guts